While Denmark were Europe’s biggest power in badminton, France have soared above them at this World Championships, Gicquel and Delrue – bettering their 2025 bronze – thumping top seeds Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping 20-22, 21-19, 21-15 to win the country’s maiden Worlds gold. It also completed a circle. Gicquel and Delrue ended Europe’s 17-year wait for a doubles gold. Incidentally, the last one came in 2009, in India, when Denmark’s Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter-Juhl won the title.
